The Flywheel

No Dec. 22nd meeting! Next meeting, Dec. 29th

No program, which means it's incumbent upon you to
show up and say something interesting, entertaining,
or provocative. Will you accept the challenge?

Meeting of December 15th, 2006

Welcome, Invocation, Thought for the Day

Prez
George welcomed a large turnout of Rotarians
and guests for the Annual Holiday Auction. As
a participant in the acclaimed Sid Chauvin/Glenn
DaggsEggnog Competition, your scribe missed
the usual opening remarks. We can assume they
went off in the normal way. Richmond Rotary has
had a long and distinguished list of Club Presidents,
and many, such as Dr. Werner and Joey
Bags, absolutely great. The true mark
of a great President has always been: can he
or she land the large Mira Vista Meeting Room for the Holiday
Auction? Prez George overcame a morass of bureaucratic
obstacles and landed the big room, entering the stellar
heights of great Club leaders.

Visiting Rotarians and Rotarians with Guests

There were many visiting Rotarians and guests present, and
too many for your scribe to record.

Announcements

The slate of Club officers for Rotary year 2007-2008
was presented and approved by the membership: President, Pam
Jones; President Elect, Mark Howe;
Treasurer, David Brown;
Secretary Jon Lawlis. And I
missed the list of Directors. (Our scribe was evidently
suffering from EIA: eggnog-induced amensia. -Ed.)
Congratulations to all.

The Program

Holiday Auction Highlights

This year’s Auction was again orchestrated by
the dynamic Jim Beaver and Don
Lau duo. Treasurer David Brown and Margaret
Morkowski assisted with the accounting. Primed
by eggnog and donated chardonnay, bidding was fast and
active.

Big money producers were the gourmet dinners
to be provided by Past Presidents Jim Beaver and Leslie
Levy; Ted Abreu’s feast; cooking with
Marsha arranged by Barbara;
and the Jon Lawlis/Erle Brown Contractor’s
Lunch, if that qualifies as food. The ancient bottle
of muscatel went for $500. Nick Despota’s website
was bid into the stratosphere and went for $3000. Sailing
on the Bay on Mike Winter’s megayacht
with Pam Jones was a hit. And
lots of wine: Stan Teaderman’s Sauvignon
Blanc(not TeaderRipple); Draper & Esquin; Troy
Pewitt’s Mondavi Reserve; and Bob
Dabney’s wine cellar.

This year’s
MacDonald’s certificates came with a week's use
of a condo in Las Vegas, donated by Stoney.
The gift from the greatest distance was probably the
hand-painted Batik from Madagascar donated by Pam.
The best athletic opportunities were Don Lau’s YMCA
membership, and serving as Mark Howe’s winch-grinders
crewing on the Great Pumpkin Race. I’d
give the most “unusual” award to the mounted
staghorn fern (we learned you mount it sideways) donated
by Jim Young.

And the Best Eggnog? Well, Sid’s had
the best nose and follow-through, though it was increasingly
hard to capture in the electric fountain. Glenn’s eggnog
had a throaty finish and certainly provided good bang
for the buck. Run-off next year!

Thanks One and All for a very successful Auction, and
raising $18,151 for Club projects.

-Semper Paratus

Host or sponsor members of the delegation of Russian
architects, from
Feb. 22nd to March 17th. Learn
more.